"Yeah, push them a bit to the right and stack them up on top of each other," Instructed Enbi Arin.
"Urgh, why am I the only one who gets to do all the heavy lifting? Aren't you stronger than me, you do the heavy lifting while I do something much more productive," Complained Li Qiu.
"Sure, then do you want to replace Prakash?" Enbi Arin asked with a slight sneer on her face.
"No thank you" Li Qiu immediately objected in denial and couldn't help but glance at the almost bluish green face of Prakash who had to mop the entire floor clean of all the filth, blood, bones and other debris.
"Then shut up and do your work" Enbi Arin replied when she suddenly heard a shrill wail.
"Waaah, I don't want to do this anymore. It's damn stinky and they look like the remains of some creepy horror flick. Big bro, do me a favour and just burn them all"
Prakash painted an almost comical sight. He was crying his eyes out with a pale face that was about to vomit its entire guts out while cleaning the floor with the mop but also didn't dare to run away from his assigned job.
"Damn me and my resolve, wuwu" This was the thought that was being repeatedly spammed within Prakash's head.
"Just think of it as training, I have already emptied out my Aria by creating marbles composed of my Spirit Flame and exploded it in various parts of the supermarket," Said Li Qiu who silently wiped away a non-existent tear from his eye to witness his glorious Spirit Flame be used as a mere lighting source.
Even though he was the one who had actually thought up such an idea in the first place when he discovered its properties, but actually using it in such a manner couldn't help but bring a tear to his eyes.
Prakash suddenly dropped the mop from his hold and ran towards the clothing section and came back a few minutes later wrapped up in layers and layers of clothing, gloves and was also covered with a mask on his face. He was also wearing a pair of roller skates.
"Bring it on!" With a renewed vigour, Prakash began using his innate ability to move both the mop and the skates and earnestly cleaned the entire area with more efficiency while at a lower time period.
A few hours passed away in occasional grunts and wails before each of them completed their respective jobs.
Prakash made the entire floor squeaky clean, free from any filth, debris, etc, while Li Qiu arranged all the shelves, cots, and other stuff and furniture a dozen metres away from the nursery room to act as a form of protection for them.
In the meantime, Enbi Arin began trimming the edges of the arrangement with her innate ability Butcher Beam and used packing tapes on the edges of the walls made of furniture to make them more stable and solid.
After that, when Li Qiu and Prakash were both resting, Enbi Arin checked the water tanks on the supermarket's rooftop which luckily had enough water to last them for a couple of weeks. And, the underground water tank which had enough water to support their daily needs for more than a few months, but, they would have to carry the water manually due to a lack of electricity.
"Thankfully, the world has been rid of germs, bacteria, viruses and the like due to the emergence of the Ari, that's one blessing in disguise" Monologued Enbi Arin.
Since the microorganisms with their simple celled structure were unable to properly house an Ari, they died as a result when their bodies absorbed Ari.
"Big bro you look pale" Prakash voiced out his opinion.
"You don't seem to be faring any better little bro" Li Qiu retorted in return.
"Naah, I just saw my ancestral Grandma waving at me a couple of times"
"For me, I felt like a dog ate me and barfed me out the next day"
"Eww, that's gross even for an analogy"
"And you weren't even a seed when your ancestral Grandma existed"
"Fine, fine, eat more of those chocolates because you still have the grossest work to do next"
"Ugh... Even thinking about that makes me want to throw up"
"Don't puke on me big bro, otherwise I'll never talk to you"
"Wuwu, my cute little brother is bullying me....."
"Ewwww, gross, I just went away for a few minutes to check on our water supplies and the both of you started to act creepily disgusting at the same time" Yelled Enbi Arin who suddenly appeared before them with a disgusted face, apparently, she had heard most of their talk.
"We were just screw.... Having a man to man conversation here" Li Qiu retorted with a straight face.
"Yeah, big bro was about to puke... Share his insights about training our abilities" Prakash chimed in
trying to save face but was successful in worsening their positions even further.
"Whatever you say," Enbi Arin rolled her eyes at their obvious coverup,"If you have recovered sufficient Aria then get on with your final task,"
"Ugh....I wanted to avoid this part," Li Qiu could only manage to complain in vain before the trio reached the entrance of the supermarket where a pile of flesh, blood, wooden pieces, broken concrete, and various stuff formed a mini hill that released an almost unbearable stench.
Enbi Arin quickly sealed the entrance with packing tape leaving behind a gap spanning a square foot in area while Prakash sealed off all the windows and returned to stand behind the now sealed entrance along with Enbi Arin and Li Qiu.
"Begin it now uncle"
"Ugh... Fine," Answered Li Qiu as he condensed the entirety of his Aria into a three-centimetre wide orange coloured marble that was composed of his newly obtained Thermal Flame.
"The moment he throws that marble onto that heap we should close this hole as quickly as possible," Enbi Arin informed Prakash with a sense of urgency.
"Got it" Replied Prakash as he began to mentally calculate the exact time seeing as Li Qiu was almost done with materialising that Thermal Flame marble.
In the meantime, Li Qiu was sweating buckets because he was controlling more than thrice the quantity of Aria that he had condensed into a ball before.
After approximately 10 seconds had passed, Li Qiu informed the others about his completion and immediately threw the marble through the small hole in the sealed entrance that landed squarely atop the pile of filth.
The small orange coloured marble flew through the air in a parabola and silently landed on top of the pile of Gore.
There was neither any sound nor shockwave that was produced when the marble exploded, but, what emerged from within was a gigantic flame approximately 3 metres tall spanning a dozen metres in area which slowly engulfed the entire heap in a bright orangish-red flames producing intense heat, smoke, sizzling sounds and of course an unbearable stench.
Enbi Arin and Prakash who were unexpectedly delayed by a second while closing up the gap almost puked their guts out due to the intense stench that seeped in, but settled down their rumbling stomachs after they moved a dozen metres away from the entrance.
"How many joules was that flame again?" Questioned Prakash to which Li Qiu shrugged his shoulders in ignorance.
"I don't know, I never studied thermodynamics you see, but, I did use up the entirety of my Aria which was actually 53 worth of stats"
"I can feel the radiating heat from even here," Said Enbi Arin as backed away even further from the entrance.
"Now that we have done all that is required for now, let's wash up and have a nice meal" Suggested Li Qiu with a grumbling tummy to which Prakash also chimed with an "I'm starving" expression as he placed his hand over his tummy.
"Then I'll quickly wash up first and then begin to cook," Suggested Enbi Arin.
"In the meantime, we'll further reinforce the walls and bring in some necessities from the other sections and also set up a few barricades along the way" Replied Li Qiu, with a hand wrapped around Prakash's shoulder, the two of them walked away to the sports section.
An hour later, they both came back with a few baseball bats, a couple of fire extinguishers and some daily utilities only to be greeted with a pleasant aroma of food.
"Take a bath first, dinner will be done soon. Though, I guess it's too late for dinner time," Enbi Arin said with a cheerful laugh.
Li Qiu and Prakash took turns to bathe and also manually washed their clothes in the meantime dinner was completed, after which, the trio sat around a table filled with a feast full of meat dishes.
"Dinner is served, please dig in" Said Enbi Arin.
"It tastes wonderful, from where did you obtain such tasty meat?" Inquired Prakash, and was greeted with jovial laughter from Enbi Arin.
"They were from the hens we killed a couple of hours ago. I used up a hen for the grill and the rooster for the soup. I also noticed that these creatures that evolved due to Ari don't easily rot. I estimate that they would be fine for a couple of weeks at the minimum even if left in the open,"
"That's good news. While we have enough vegetables to last us for a few weeks, the fruits have already started to rot but we have loads and loads of spices to last us for a long time. As long as we hunt other creatures we'll most probably be able to eat such tasty food" Complimented Li Qiu.
"But shouldn't you save some for emergency purposes in the form of jerky or the like? We are practically eating a massive feast right now" Prakash couldn't help but worry.
"And save for what exactly? We need such food to have the strength to hunt more and grow stronger, if you start to save in such situations you would only be weak until the very end. On a completely different note, couldn't you have hanged those wet clothes somewhere else? The cloth line is all over the place" As they heard the complains raised by Enbi Arin, both Li Qiu and Prakash tactically decided to ignore her last comment and concentrated on enjoying their meal.
The current layout of their usage area consisted of the nursery room which was located at one corner of the supermarket that was followed by their makeshift furniture walls which connected both the concrete walls of the supermarket in an arc shape with a radius of 37 metres.
The nursery room consisted of 3 beds, 2 cupboards filled with their clothes and other daily utilities and also had an attached bathroom.
The spacious area outside the nursery room had a dining table, a few cupboards filled with food, a big box with a few items that can qualify as weapons such as hockey bats, barbells, hammers, and a katana.
The katana was found by Prakash in a secret locker hidden inside the owner's office room along with plenty of cash which Prakash nonchalantly ignored.
They also arranged a table that was equipped with a gas cylinder, a water purifier, a stove, some utensils and a pressure cooker situated beside the cupboard acting as a makeshift kitchen.
The entrance to their makeshift fortress was located at one end of the fortress wall, sandwiched between the supermarket walls. The fortress entrance was two feet in width and a heavy cupboard acted both as a door and a camouflaged cover which could be pushed out if they wanted to go out.
Though the wall wasn't really either strong or sturdy as compared to a concrete wall, but, it gave them a false sense of security. The icing on the cake was the huge skull drawn by Li Qiu on the other surface of the fortress wall with the help of his Spirit Flame.
Li Qiu was surprised to find out that his Spirit Flame was not affected by gravity, meaning, it can stay afloat at the same place that Li Qiu initially released at. He could also manipulate it according to his Will. That meant if Li Qiu left a clump of his Spirit Flame in the air, then it would continue the float in the same place, unaffected by either gravity or the inertial forces acting due to the Earth's rotation.
Li Qiu got carried away and decided to spray the entire floor of the supermarket near them with a fine layer of his Spirit Flame which made the floor look like it had a paint job made with white coloured radium.
On seeing that it was half past midnight, the trio finally slept when they were immediately overwhelmed by drowsiness due to all the physical and mental labour they had to go through today.